


Heartstopper

by sbuggbot



Category: SteamWorld Quest (Video Game)
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Found Family, Gen, Suspense, Whump, medical whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:01:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22638088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sbuggbot/pseuds/sbuggbot
Summary: Something went wrong inside Thayne's chest, and it creates a big scare for everyone in their cobbled-together family.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 3





	1. The Crash

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be perfectly honest. I don't fully know why I wrote this or how it got so big. Every time I checked the word count I would be baffled because writing longer things used to be a big challenge for me. MY POWER GROWS. 
> 
> If this seems more disorganized, that would be because I remembered this is a thing I do for fun and I don't need to be perfect with it. I mainly posted it here to the Archive because it would get buried elsewhere.
> 
> One might wonder "who asked for this" and I say "probably no one, but I know a few folks who would probably enjoy it and at least one who definitely would"
> 
> As a side note Orik has legally adopted Tarah and Thayne as his children at this point. The Goosebucketeers have guardianship rights in case something were to happen to Orik but he's still here and gonna be around for a while so nobody has to worry about that right now.

Tarah was too disoriented and overwhelmed to understand what was happening. All she knew was that Thayne was in trouble and teetering on the edge of dying. She could feel his pain, feel the faulty valve in his steam-heart failing. There was no way she'd leave him like this. They had that link from being twins, from the result of a single lifespark splitting into two. If that link being threatened felt this bad, she didn't want to know what it felt like for it to shatter.

For all intents and purposes, Thayne was still awake. His eyes were open and he looked towards Tarah when she was close enough. But he wasn't moving much and clearly he was in pain to the point he could hardly move or speak if he tried. Even just breathing seemed like a tall order for him, but he was still managing.

They were being moved somewhere, quickly. Tarah wasn't really paying attention. Ever since her brother collapsed she only focused on staying at his side so she would know he was safe. She didn't have the space left in her mind to think about anything else.

They stopped for a little bit in one area and professional repairbots, nurses and a doctor, began checking Thayne over. Tarah had to remind herself again and again that they were looking for what was wrong, they were trying to help him; she shouldn't smack them all away. She still didn't budge from her end of the stretcher. Then, they were moving again. A motionless Thayne was wheeled one way and Tarah found herself being scooped up and moved in the opposite direction.

Once she realized what had happened, Tarah screamed and kicked as she was carried. "No! NO!" She lunged towards her brother to no avail. Thayne was dying, couldn't they see that? Did they not realize separating them was a bad idea? She broke loose of whoever was holding her and ran for the room Thayne had been moved to, on all fours and dodging several pairs of legs in the process. If only the floor wasn't so slick; she couldn't get a grip and push off on this tile fast enough.

A second before she got to the door, someone else caught her and lifted her up. She screeched and randomly flung several punches about in hopes one would hit a target and release her. She couldn't think clearly enough to put up a fight with any sort of skill, only her strength.

The nurse who caught her carried her down the hall part of the way and set Tarah down, keeping a hold on her arm. "Hey, hey... Listen to me for a second, okay...? The mechanics are trying to help your brother right now, he's in good hands... But they can't have other people in there while they work. You have to wait out here for a bit."

Tarah didn't hear a word of it. She kept pulling and struggling to get out of the nurse's grasp, yelling "No!" whenever the nurse paused. Her feet slipped out from under her (stupid tile) and she fell on the ground. Her objections descended into nonverbal groaning and wailing. The horrid pain and the empty feeling scraped at the inside of her chest.

Galleo was the first one to make it to the clinic. He barely had a clue what had happened other than Thayne collapsed and needed emergency repairs. "Stable but in critical condition," the message had said. Finding Tarah in the midst of a full-blown, panicked meltdown didn't answer many questions but told him that it was serious.

He walked over to where the nurse was trying to keep Tarah from running into the OR and stood there. "Um…"

The nurse looked up at him, clearly strained by the situation currently occurring and the combative child but still managing to uphold a polite manner. "Can I help you?"

"I'm Galleo," he said. A long pause that showed that he had told the nurse no useful information. "I'm one of her guardians. And an emergency contact."

The nurse was all too relieved to pass babysitting duties over to Galleo and go back to normal nurse things. "We've got our team working on her brother as we speak. Once she has the time the doctor will be out to update you."

Galleo picked Tarah up and held her firmly but close against him like an infant. She didn't recognize what was going on and continued wiggling and thrashing. It didn't stop Galleo. "Tarah," he said as he began to bounce her gently.

For the first time since she got here, Tarah processed a face she saw and recognized Galleo. She stopped squirming. It didn't stop little sobs and whimpers from wracking her body, but she was more aware now. "They took Thayne away," she mumbled.

"I know, they're trying to fix him but the mechanics can't have extra people in there while they work."

Still very much distressed, Tarah leaned into Galleo and clung onto his apron. She felt so _helpless_. Thayne's life was currently in some total stranger's hands and she didn't like it, not one bit. What if they were just like the old managers at the orphanage? The thought sent her back into tears.

Galleo began rocking in place as he hugged Tarah. "Shhh, the others will be here soon…"

Orik had gotten here as fast as he could. Morally, he had no choice. Thayne and Tarah weren't of his own steel and steam, but they were still his children. Galleo was sitting down and rocking both him and Tarah back and forth. Galleo looked frazzled enough, even with Benji nuzzling his cheek. Tarah was petrified.

"What happened, where's my son?"

Galleo gave a tense shrug. "Still under. The nurse said the doctor will come out soon a while ago but nobody's shown up."

Orik muttered something under his breath that neither of the other two could understand. "That isn't good," he said, loud enough for them to hear.

The doctor stepped out at that moment. Once she saw Tarah (and by extension, who she was with), she strode over. "Is one of you Thayne's guardian?"

"He is," Orik said as he gestured at Galleo. "I'm his father, though."

"That works. Come this way, that way I can tell you what's going on," the doctor said as she guided them to another room. " I'm Doctor Pana, the head mechanic working on Thayne."

The fact that the doctor immediately had them go somewhere more private did not inspire confidence in Orik. He kept a brave face for Galleo and especially Tarah, though.

Galleo handed Tarah over to Orik so he could pet and turn the key on Benji's back. Seeing that she wasn't going to get to her brother yet, all the fight had left her. She leaned against Orik, doing the bare minimum to pay attention to what was going on.

"What's happening?" Orik asked, too hesitant to directly ask if Thayne was okay.

"We're not quite sure," the doctor said. "Some part in his central pump isn't working correctly and it's making his entire heart malfunction."

No wonder Tarah had been hugging her chest, Orik thought as he held the bun on his lap. She was still shaking a lot. "Is he going to be okay?"

The doctor paused for a moment. _Not a good sign_ , Orik thought. "We won't know for sure until we find what's causing this. But he's in good hands. My team and I aren't the sort to lose hope easily." A panel affixed to her arm clicked and flipped from one color to a different one. She glanced over at it. "Excuse me, I need to be getting back in there," she said as she got up.

Despite coming from different places, Armilly and Copernica arrived at almost the same time. It was still a waiting game that no one wanted to play. They were updated on the situation too, but nobody else came out to give them any more news.

"It's probably good, then," Copernica said in an attempt at consolation. "If things were going downhill and looking really bad, they would say so."

While she was not the patient, Armilly was still tense and restless from the medical environment. Going to the doctor, let alone the hospital, made her nervous. She was determined to be there for everyone else, though. They were family. That being said she was more receptive to fetching things for the others and wandering than sitting still and waiting.

It hadn't even been close to an hour yet, but time had a way of dilating whenever you were anxiously waiting on something. Armilly wondered if it was the same way for the mechanics that were working on Thayne.

Tarah's crying suddenly picked up and she screamed, clutching her chest. It felt like someone had ripped her chest open, shredded her insides, and poured acid all over what was left. It burned and the feeling branched out from her chest and into her arms, her legs, and her head. Was this what dying felt like…?

"Tarah? What's wrong?" Armilly asked as she hopped from her seat to the one Orik and Tarah were on. Galleo and Copernica were quick to move closer as well.

Suspecting what was happening, Orik muttered a soft "oh no…" and held Tarah as tight as he could. He began channelling healing energy without even thinking about it; it just happened as a result of his desire to relieve her pain. He shrugged his weak arm out of its makeshift sling and wrapped it around Tarah.

"What's going on?" Copernica asked as she cautiously reached out to rub the back of Tarah's head.

Nervous, Armilly looked off in the direction the operating room was. She was getting a bad feeling and it didn't seem to be rooted in her fear of the mechanic. "Maybe it's with Thayne?" Galleo shouldered past her to help Orik's attempt to heal Tarah and the knight put up no fight.

Tarah's pained and labored gasping continued for another minute or so before she began to quiet down. Trembling, she released her chest and clumsily rubbed her face with a little grunt. Shaking a lot himself, Orik loosened his grip on Tarah and let his right arm go limp. He would have asked Tarah if she was better now but was scared of what the answer might be.

"We're here for you, Tarah…"

"Nnnng," she grunted as she flopped bonelessly against him.

"You want a drink? You probably need a drink after all that. Lemme get some water," Copernica rambled.

"That's my job!" Armilly groused. If she wasn't the one running the errand, what was she gonna do then?

"Hey, Armilly…" Galleo said as he eyed Orik. The poor man appeared to be barely holding it together. "Why don't you hold Tarah for a little bit?"

Orik spoke up. "Are you sure she's--" Before he could finish, Tarah sat up and reached towards Armilly. "--oh."

As Armilly picked Tarah up, Copernica asked, "Orik, why don't you come with me?"

"Why? Surely you don't expect me to be of much help carrying things?"

"You've hardly moved since you got here, don't your joints start acting up when you do that?"

"Sometimes…" He still seemed hesitant to leave.

"I was thinking you might need a moment, too…" she said. "To re-center yourself, isn't that how you put it once?"

"We'll be with Tarah, and it's only for a little bit," Armilly said. "I'm surprised you've stayed put for so long in the first place…even Tarah's wandered at least a little bit."

That was partly because he felt that he couldn't go anywhere; he had to stay put and wait for any updates. "..." What if something were to happen while he was away, even if for a few minutes?

"Come on, you can't be much help to Thayne if you stress yourself into a breakdown."

"You're right," Orik admitted as he pushed himself up.

"How are you holding up?" Copernica asked once they were further down the hall. "Are you okay?"

"Are you really asking that at a time like this?" Orik sounded more confused than offended or irritated.

"Yes, because you have a consistent record of holding in your feelings and trying to ignore them when they get too bad for you to handle on your own until either you break or it hits the fan," she said. "And I have the feeling you don't want to scare Tarah, so I want you to tell me if you're okay or not."

Orik shuddered. "...Absolutely not. I think the reason is obvious."

"Because Thayne's in trouble," Copernica said. There, now he was starting to acknowledge his feelings.

"Yes… he's my son, of course I'm worried," he said. "The doctor seemed to think he might not survive...she didn't say as much directly, but the way she was acting seemed that way. This isn't my first time with the hospital, you know." He was playing with his bracelet again.

"It's not mine either, I had to come here a lot, especially when I was a kid, and a lot of the time they weren't sure what was going on with me…" She did better now, but she still ran into issues once every blue moon or two. "Your stuff sounds pretty upsetting too, though."

"I'm terrified." He stopped walking. "If Thayne dies, there's a strong chance Tarah won't survive the aftermath, not with how their sparks work. I don't want to lose either of them. I _can't_. I can't go through something like this again." His voice cracked.

Copernica looked down at her feet. "He's a tough kid, he isn't going to go down without a fight."

"There was that moment with Tarah...I think they lost Thayne, there." His voice was barely above a whisper and he couldn't hold it steady if he tried.

"They must've gotten him back, I don't think she would have quieted down if he was gone for good." She leaned over and hugged him on his good side. "There's still hope."

"Y-yes…" He had admittedly lost sight of it amidst his own cloud of despair.

Once Orik had composed himself some, Copernica released him and grabbed several bottles of water, passing one of them over to him. "We should get back, if you're ready."

The doctor came out, looking tired as she pulled her gloves off. Half her expression was obscured by her surgical mask, so it was hard to tell if it was a relieved tired or a defeated one.

Armilly jumped to her feet. "Well??"

"He made it," she said simply. "He stumbled on us a time or two, but once we found the problem and fixed it he pulled through like a champ. He isn't going to be awake for a while longer, but you can visit him now."

Armilly almost bolted after the doctor, but Copernica grabbed her arm and tugged her back. She staggered, looked at Copernica for a moment, then remembered, "Oh, right, hospital behavior." Copernica nodded.

The only ones who didn't follow after the doctor, strangely enough, were Orik and Tarah (who wanted to be carried _by_ Orik). It appeared that he was not currently with the program. "Orik, come on," Galleo said.

"Hm? Oh." He stood up, boosted Tarah on his hip, and followed after. "My bad."

After going down the hall a little way, Orik asked, "Where exactly are we going?"

"To see Thayne," Copernica said. "Where did you think we were going?"

"I didn't know, that's why I asked." Another pause. "...is he alive?"

"Yes, and from the looks of it, he's going to stay that way," the doctor said.

"Dude, we just talked about this," Galleo said. "You were there."

"Physically," Orik said. "I must have blanked out, there…"


	2. Recovering

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's shorter but it's just how it decided to be.

The doctor led the small band down the hall to a room, one that was laid out for a single patient. "I have to leave you with my nurse, now. There's only so much me to go around this place… They'll watch over Thayne and answer any questions you might have." After double-checking that she led them to the right room, she took her leave.

Like the doctor had said, Thayne was still asleep, a deep one based on how still he was. While jarring enough on its own, it was vastly overshadowed by the fact he was connected to at least three or four machines and an infusion line. One tube went in his mouth, albeit tucked in the corner.

"A breathing tube?" Orik asked as he sat down near the bed, sounding a bit surprised.

"Hospital protocol for critical patients, _especially_ ones that are having heart-pump problems," the nurse explained. "For right now, he's doing so well he might not even need it, but we want to be careful."

"What happened to him?" Galleo asked.

"There was a faulty valve in his heart, looks like it had been there for years," the nurse said. Maybe from when he was first built. "It just snapped and stopped working like a valve should. Without it regulating pressure, his heart couldn't pump correctly."

"You restarted it, though," Armilly said. It was rather obvious, Thayne was right here and clearly not dead.

"We reset his rhythm several times, but it didn't do much good with the bad valve in there. It would just go right back to malfunctioning. Once we found the valve and replaced it, his heart went back to pumping like normal almost right away. It was a little surreal to see, to be honest."

Orik reached towards Thayne and carefully stroked his head. He didn’t care that Thayne was still unconscious, the little one could still use the comfort. "...Did it stop completely at any point?" He had a suspicion from that one particular reaction Tarah had.

"It did, for less than a minute or two," the nurse said with a solemn nod. "That was right when we found the faulty valve. Since replacing it would have involved artificially stopping his heart anyway, we replaced it right then and he recovered on his own from there."

While Orik had already reached forward to stroke Thayne's head, Tarah remained frozen on his lap, looking on nervously. Seeing her brother hooked up to so many machines intimidated her. It looked wrong, he seemed so weak and fragile even though she knew he was anything but. She was scared that she'd break something if she got too close.

"It might be a bit difficult to hug him right now, but you're allowed to touch him," Copernica said, reading Tarah's expression. "Just don't be rough with any of the lines he's hooked up to and it'll be fine."

Tarah cautiously scooted forward on Orik's lap until she was just barely leaning against the siderail on the bed. For a moment, she stayed that way, looking over her brother. He shouldn't be that small… did that mean she was really that small, too?

She sorted her nerves out enough to reach towards Thayne. She brushed her fingers against his arm before deciding to hold his hand. He was still _here,_ knowing that and feeling it as she held his hand brought her relief she didn't even realize she needed so bad. It was like a weight had been lifted.

It wasn’t like Thayne was doing anything interesting (although that was good in this case), but for a while all anyone (aside from the nurse) did was stay in the room around Thayne. Even though it was going to be quite a wait before he started waking up, nobody wanted to be away from him at a time like this.

Also, now that she was permitted to be in the same room as her brother again, Tarah was not going to allow anyone to remove her from his immediate vicinity. Any mechanics would just have to put up with their new small supervisor for now.

  
  


Armilly pointed at Thayne. "He's waking up!"

Thayne started to squirm around and looked for who was rubbing his head. He felt too tired to lift his head for long but he didn't let it stop him from trying to get his bearings. It didn't take long to find Orik even if his vision was still a bit blurred.

"Hi there," Orik said as he changed to patting his arm. Tarah scooted back up against Orik, unnerved by how out of it Thayne looked. She still gave him a small wave. 

Seeing Tarah nervous made Thayne nervous, especially since he didn't really remember what had happened. The nurse stepped in before he could puzzle over it much further. He startled.

"Oh, you're awake!" They sounded a bit surprised. "It's alright, you're in the hospital right now. You had an issue with a valve in your heart pump, but we fixed you up."

Thayne looked down at himself. He couldn't see where he had been opened up with the gown in the way. The lines and things hooked up to him distracted him before he could investigate further. They weren't exactly comfortable. He experimentally tried tugging on one in his arm.

Three and a half sets of hands reached out to stop him. "No, no, leave those in!"

In response to the _seriously?_ look he gave, Copernica said, "They need those to make sure your body's working right now. And for medicine."

"Taking one of those out on your own really hurts, trust me," Orik added. 

"You say that like you have personal experience."

"I was very disoriented," he explained with a small grimace. It wasn't one of his best moments…

Thayne let his arms flop down and opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. He looked down at his breathing tube and made a face at it.

"You can't use your voice with the tube in your throat. Right now it's helping you breathe and buffering your central pump, but we'll see if you're ready to have it taken out soon," the nurse said. "Other than that, how are you?" They held out their hand and alternated between a thumbs-up and a thumbs-down to give him a guide. Thayne could angle his thumb accordingly based on how crummy he felt.

Thayne squinted at the nurse for a moment, struggling to think clearly in his groggy state. Eventually he figured out how he felt, though, and what he thought was the best way to communicate that right now.

With hardly any change in his dazed expression, he flipped the nurse off. 

Galleo immediately burst out laughing, while Armilly was stunned silent for a moment first. Copernica looked gobsmacked while Orik was trying to appear annoyed but failing horribly. 

Tarah, meanwhile, whooped and threw her hands up in the air. "Thayne!" she cheered between relieved giggles. Her brother was still there, after all.

The nurse was amused but they had seen plenty before and was not surprised. "Even if you aren't happy, I still need to check your vitals real quick."

Thayne grew increasingly agitated as he woke up and as the nurse checked him over. He wasn't pleased about the condition or the situation was in, not at all. 

"Is something wrong?" Armilly asked. Maybe he was in pain, or there was something bothering him.

He was given a pen and paper to write, but he was still too unwell to write anything legible. The only thing that could be determined from the aggressively-made scribbles was that they were probably in all capital letters. The fact that Tarah couldn't make sense of it either was saying something.

"Maybe you could point instead?" Galleo suggested, although he wasn't sure how useful of a suggestion it was.

Visibly displeased, he mimed ripping out all the tubes and lines he was connected to.

"Oh, those are uncomfortable, that might be what's upsetting him."

Thayne pointed at Copernica and nodded, that must have been it. 

"Sorry, buddy, those need to stay in for now," the nurse said. "They're there to help make you better." The nurse turned to their clipboard to note Thayne's readings, the side effect of this being that they didn't see Thayne point at one of the lines quizzically.

"That one's checking your heart," Copernica said. "The mechanics want to know if it starts beating weird again."

"...And then right here is an infusion line for medicine. Right now it's there so it's ready to go if you need something. Also to make sure you don't run dry since you can't drink anything right now."

Thayne pointed at his breathing tube. It was rather uncomfortable now that he wasn't sedated; it kept manually pushing air into his bellows and it overall felt really weird.

"Yeah, that's why you can't drink right now. Making sure you keep breathing helps when your central pump acts up like that."

The nurse spoke up. "...your vitals are looking good. We can see about easing you off that ventilator, now." They began adjusting something on one of the machines. "There, try breathing on your own now."

The change from the machine totally doing all the breathing for him to only partly helping him was a bit weird for him and made him cough once, but Thayne transitioned just fine.

"You're doing good. We'll make sure you stay steady and then Doctor Pana can take that out for you in a bit."

\--

Once the mechanics had sat Thayne's bed up and tested everything five times over (or so it seemed), removing the tube was just as uneventful. All that testing for something that was over in ten seconds. "There you go, all done. How does that feel?"

Thayne coughed again as it was pulled out, but as the doctor said, that was good since it meant his reflexes were there. "My throat hurts," Thayne croaked. He paused. He didn't expect to sound _that_ hoarse. 

"That's pretty normal, it should go away in a little while." As the doctor got rid of the tube, Thayne was handed a cup with a little water in it. "Try drinking some."

It was a good thing there was only a little water in the cup; his hands were shaking a lot and would have spilled more of a full cup than successfully drank. Once the water was _in_ his mouth he could swallow perfectly fine, which was what the doctor was more worried about.

Once the mechanics were out of the way, Tarah climbed up onto the bed. She still wasn't confident enough to navigate the lines Thayne was still connected to, but she wanted to be closer to him anyway. They were within arm's reach now.

"Can I go home now?" Thayne asked.

The doctor gave a little sigh. "Even though you're doing really well right now, you can't. I want to keep an eye on you for a few days at least to make sure your heart's okay. You're probably going to need the time to rest, too."

Thayne was clearly disappointed, but at the moment he didn't have the energy to put up much of a fight for his own case. Unsurprisingly, brushing with death was a draining experience even if you weren't awake for part of it.

"Some of us might have to go home for a bit to clean up or something," Galleo said, "but it isn't like we're going to be going very far while you're here, okay?"

"Promise?"

"Promise. It's how families work." As Armilly said that, she realized that the twins might not have that many prior experiences with that. It wasn't good that Thayne (and Tarah, let's be real here) had been put through that, but they were so, so lucky it happened while they had a family to support them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't think that this is the last of it that Google Doc I wrote this in is like 5.9k. I just started bumping into a roadblock or something


	3. Goodbye, Goodnight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp this is the last of the stuff I wrote during that crazy burst of inspiration.

"What do you mean, I have to leave?"

"Hospital policy discourages us from allowing underage overnight visitors," the nurse said. "Even then we usually limit it to only one person staying the night."

"Really?" Tarah barked. She did not sound happy. "I'm the only person in this room that's actually related to him!"

"You need to go home and rest anyway," Orik said. "This whole thing's a lot for you to try to handle."

"Same goes for you," Armilly pointed out.

"Huh?"

"Go home, Orik, you need a break from this."

He didn't look receptive to the suggestion at all. "Why?" he asked. It wasn't like Thayne had the option to go home.

"Because you need to take care of yourself?"

"Thayne has never been in a hospital before, let alone overnight."

"I'm willing to stay the night with him," Copernica said. "I can see how much this is draining you. Also, I get the feeling Tarah might need the company back home tonight…" Tarah was still not happy about the hospital not allowing visiting children to stay overnight. 

"If you're not gonna let me stay the night, I'm not lettin' you," she said with her arms crossed.

"Also, Thayne does not need his dad  _ or his sister _ breaking on them. The mechanics here are gonna take care of him, that's why they're here."

"...It's up to what Thayne wants," Orik said after a long pause. 

Thayne's little voice spoke up. "It's ok, Dad, go sleep." He rubbed his eyes. He was tired enough and the grown ups disagreeing with each other was making his head hurt. 

"Are you sure you'll be okay here without me or Tarah?"

"I'll have Coco, won't I?" Thayne asked. That was a perfectly fine option to him, since Tarah wasn't allowed to stay. "A-also, you're also being kinda antsy…"

That caught Orik off guard. Then again, Thayne had always been extremely sensitive to other's emotions. Even with an (unhealthy) attempt to tamp down on his anxiety, Orik's presence in his current state might be more draining than comforting for Thayne. "Alright," Orik said with a small sigh. He still asked for a hug before he left, which Thayne obliged.

"Are you going to be good here overnight, Coco?" Galleo asked.

"Yeah," she said with a little shrug. "Better than you or Armilly would be. Can you imagine Milly staying in this place overnight by choice?"

"Nope," both Galleo and Armilly said simultaneously. 

"...Tarah? Can I have a hug before you go?"

She climbed up onto the bed and sat a small distance away from Thayne. She wasn't quite sure how she could safely hug him without disrupting something important. Once he raised his arms some, though, she saw the opening just fine and rushed over to hug him firmly (and as tight as she dared).

Orik was in no rush to separate them, but the goodbye hug had to end at some point. "We'll be back in the morning," he reminded the two of them. "Tarah, we could get some things together to bring for him tomorrow, how does that sound? You know what he likes better than everyone else."

Neither of them let go of the other. Orik really hoped he wouldn't have to use force; things could get ugly fast...

"...Have they ever been apart from each other like this before?" Galleo asked. "Overnight, I mean…"

"Not since we ditched the orphanage," Tarah mumbled against Thayne. That had been one of the best things about leaving that place. Nobody there to separate them or arbitrarily force them apart. 

Armilly was becoming visibly restless about leaving at this point. She took a hesitant step closer. "Should we--"

Orik put his arm out. "Don't separate them, they'll do so on their own terms and it will be a lot less stressful for everyone involved." Especially with their last experience with this being from their days in that unsafe and abusive orphanage, Orik didn't want to trigger any bad memories. 

With one final squeeze, Tarah and Thayne released each other. Thayne sat back against the bed while Tarah edged toward the foot of the bed. "...see you tomorrow?" 

"Yeah," Thayne said.

"So you better still be there when I get back, got it?" For just a moment, there was a hint of Tarah's trademark snark, complete with smirk.

"Okay," he said, suppressing a half-giggle. "So no sneaking out the window?"

Now Tarah was giggling too. "Only if you're gonna meet up with me! You know  _ that _ !"

"Please don't, you'll scare everybody if you disappear on us," Galleo said.

Armilly squinted. "I can't tell if they're joking or not?"

"It's hard to tell at times," Orik admitted as he put Tarah on his hip. "I think they're playing, but I'm only confident as I am because Thayne's still fairly weak."

Neither child's expression did anything to clarify the matter.

"The nurses and I will keep an eye on him, see you guys in the morning." Copernica said, waving them off.

"G'night."

"Night."

  
  


The fact it was dim didn't bother him. He was used to it and would have preferred it over too much light. What he didn't like was the monitors making noise (although these noises meant things were good), the orderlies in the hall as they did their tasks, and the general foreign feel to the place. He couldn't relax, let alone sleep like this.

The only thing that kept him from cracking at that moment was that Copernica was there. Somehow she had actually dozed off in the chair in the corner, her hat brim covering her face. Evidently when she was younger she wasn't a stranger to overnights at the hospital, so the environment didn't psych her out like it did with the others. 

Thayne clutched at his blanket and subconsciously started gnawing on the hem. Then he remembered he was in a hospital and immediately spat it out. He kinda wanted Copernica right now, but he was too afraid to wake her up and ask and be a bother. Anxious, he switched to tugging on his ear and grunting softly to avoid sticking the icky blanket in his mouth again.

Copernica stirred and shifted in her sleep and Thayne froze. Had he already woken her up? Was she going to be mad at him? Maybe he should play dead. No, that might be a bit extreme, maybe he could just pretend to be asleep...

Copernica lifted the brim of her hat and nudged her glasses into a position where she could mostly see out of them for a quick peek. She saw Thayne looking at her, so she properly adjusted her glasses and sat up. "What's wrong?" she asked softly. "Does something hurt or is it something else?"

Thayne shook his head but couldn't come up with a further response. Copernica could tell he needed her in some way, though. He looked too uneasy. She'd have to help him part of the way to get the message across.

"Do you need help doing something?"

Another head shake, this one more resolute.

"Is there something you want me to go get for you?"

A more frantic head shake accompanied by widened eyes. He reached out for her.

"Okay, okay, I won't go anywhere," she said. Thayne kept holding his hands out even after she reassured him she wasn't going anywhere. "...do you want hugs?"

That was it. He nodded and let his arms fall a little. 

"Can you scoot over a little bit, then?" Copernica easily maneuvered herself around the lines Thayne was hooked up to and sat back on the bed, letting Thayne rest against her. 

"I don't like it here," he mumbled as he curled up to her. "I wanna go home.

"Yeah, it's scary," Copernica replied. "We've gotta make sure you're better and nothing else happens, though." 

Mentally, Copernica kicked herself for not thinking of having someone bring a few things from home for Thayne to have while he spent the night here. Like his little stuffed toy (Tarah had a matching one), or the small silk pillow they made when Orik realized how much Thayne liked the feel of his robe. On the off chance one of the other four didn't think to bring either of those with tomorrow, she was going to get them herself. 

"Don' go," Thayne mumbled as he settled in place. Copernica was more comfortable than the bed itself was.

"I'll stay with you  _ at least _ until Orik and Tarah get back in the morning, okay? You won't be by yourself." Copernica gently began rubbing Thayne's head to get him to calm down.

He made a little humming noise in agreement. "Thanks…"

"It isn't a problem," she said. "I know it's scary here, especially for your first time. And I'm probably not the same as Tarah…"

"I like snuggling more than being alone," Thayne said. He paused. "Have you had to stay here before?" he asked.

"Yeah...there were times I'd get really sick while I was growing up and I'd have to spend the night or something like that while they figured out what was wrong." She still had that problem that made her sick, but it was so well managed these days she didn't run into issues often.

"Was it scary?"

"Sometimes, but I got kinda used to the place after a few times. Then, if I got worried, it was usually from wondering what was wrong with me," Copernica said. Pains in your boiler so bad they'd make you throw up would do that to a child. "And sometimes I was just too dang sick to care."

Even if he was doing better, Thayne did seem to be reaching that point of not having the energy to be bothered. Not with Coco right here to keep him company and help him feel safe. He yawned a little and rubbed his face.

"I know you're sleepy... try to rest, ok?"

After a while, Thayne did fall asleep. That was good, he really needed it after having such a rough day. Hopefully tomorrow went well, and he'd be able to go home within the following couple days.


End file.
